Short answers to the questions we hear most.
MotionCue is built to be simple: press play and follow the figure. If something isn't behaving the way you expect, the answer is usually here.
Reminders are delivered through your device's notifications, so they need permission to appear. Check, in order:
Reminders follow the cadence you set and roll forward from your last finished session, so you won't be nudged right after you've already stretched.
That's your call. MotionCue delivers reminders, and the Move Me nudges that invite you to do one quick stretch, as Time Sensitive notifications, the kind iOS will show during a Focus or Do Not Disturb so a nudge you scheduled isn't silently swallowed. Your quiet hours and active days always apply; nothing fires outside the waking window you set.
If you'd rather Focus win, you're one switch away:
The same switches work in reverse: if reminders are not getting through when you expect them to, make sure both of those are on.
Yes, that's what Time nudges by stillness does. Turn it on in MotionCue > Settings > Schedule (it sits with the other Move Me settings) and the next nudge anchors to when you last stopped moving instead of to the clock, so it's far less likely to buzz while you're already up and walking around.
It's off until you switch it on. The first time you do, iOS asks for Motion & Fitness permission, because MotionCue reads your recent step counts to tell sitting from moving. It reads them at the moment it plans your next nudge, uses them, and discards them: nothing is stored, nothing syncs, and nothing is sent to us. If you decline, or your device has no step data, nudges simply keep their normal varied rhythm.
One honest limit: MotionCue decides timing when it plans, so if you stand up and walk right after it planned, a nudge can still occasionally land mid-walk. It re-plans often, which makes that uncommon rather than impossible.
This is usually how iPhone and Apple Watch are designed to work together, not a problem with the app:
Press the play button on Home to run your whole routine hands-free; MotionCue advances through each stretch and tells you when to switch sides. To try a single stretch on its own, tap it in the Library and use "Try stretch," or tap a stretch on Home. Starting a full session resets your reminder interval.
An optional soft chime and haptic can mark when it's time to switch sides mid-stretch, and a cue plays when each stretch finishes, useful when you can't watch the screen. Turn these on under Settings > "Chime and haptics."
Use the − and + buttons on the Home water row to add or remove water (one tap is one serving, sized to your unit). When a water reminder arrives you can log a glass straight from the notification, without opening the app; tapping the reminder itself takes you to your water, not somewhere else.
Turn on "Sync with Apple Health" in Settings to also save water to Health and include water you've logged in other apps in your daily total. It's optional; the app works fully without it.
Choose a look under Settings > appearance. An optional, gentle session soundtrack can play while you stretch; turn "Session music" on in Settings. It mixes under your own audio and respects your silent switch.
MotionCue runs on both iPhone and Apple Watch and is included with your subscription, there's nothing extra to buy. Subscribe on your iPhone; your subscription, preferences, sessions, and streaks sync between your own devices over Apple's encrypted device-to-device channel.
Circle is an optional way to keep a small, encouraging group with people you invite, so a quiet daily habit has a little company. It stays off until you create or join a Circle. Inside a Circle you can also make a pact with one person.
A pact is one person and one promise: a shared minute, like weekdays at 3. Both phones cue at that same moment, so you are moving together rather than just reporting in afterwards. Open the Circle tab and tap Make a pact, pick your person and your minute, and that is the whole setup. You can change the minute later; moving it never costs you the garden's history.
Every day you both move grows a watercolor garden that belongs to the two of you. It is built to be forgiving on purpose:
If your partner's side has gone quiet, tap Water the garden to hand some color back. You get two a week, so it still means something when you use one.
Instead of a stream of pings, a pact sends one small letter on Sunday morning about how the two of you did. There is no failure copy in it anywhere: the quietest possible week simply reads "The garden rested this week." The first letter arrives the Sunday after you make the pact.
Tap Dissolve pact. The Circle itself stays, and so does everything else about it.
On the Circle tab, tap New Circle to start one (name it something like "Family" or "Work crew"), then tap Share invite link and send it to the people you want in. To join someone else's, open their invite link or tap Join with a link. You can be in several Circles at once, and joining one never touches the others.
Only three things, and only the people in that Circle see them: the display name you choose for Circle, your current streak and whether you've stretched today, and the cheers you send and receive. Never the specific stretches you did, your reminder schedule, or your hydration. It's stored in your own iCloud and shared through Apple's private sharing; it never passes through our servers and we never receive a copy. Using Circle requires being signed in to iCloud.
Tap someone in your Circle to send a cheer (Love it, Proud of you, or Nice work). They feel a soft buzz on their wrist and see a small bloom on their card. You can leave any Circle at any time, which removes your presence from it.
When someone you invite joins your Circle, MotionCue opens for them without the upfront paywall, so a friend you bring in can start moving right away.
MotionCue is one simple subscription that includes everything, every stretch, both devices, all themes, and any future additions. There is no separate "Pro" tier and nothing is locked behind a second purchase.
Every stretch is drawn from a published health authority (such as Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Harvard Health, and the APTA), with the source cited in the app. MotionCue is a general wellness app, not a medical device or a substitute for professional medical advice. If a movement causes pain, stop and consult a clinician.
Write to us and a real person will get back to you, usually within two business days. It helps to include your device (iPhone and/or Apple Watch model), your iOS or watchOS version, and what you were doing when the issue happened.